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Easy stepson the road to Eurostars

Jäähyväiset Suomi! (Farewell to the Finnish Chairmanship)

Post date:

02-July-2018

The Helsinki meetings from 19-21 June 2018 gave the EUREKA network the opportunity to learn and reflect on their many achievements during the Finnish Chairmanship year and to salute the team at Business Finland who contributed toward this very positive 12 months in the EUREKA calendar. 442 projects saw the day, of which 298 were Eurostars, and 43 were Cluster projects. Some 102 were Network projects (including those using the GlobalStars instrument, which enables EUREKA countries to participate in project calls with countries outside the EUREKA network). The EUREKA Innovation Days event at the Finlandia Hall in Helsinki in May 2018 attracted nearly 1000 participants from across the world, with strong statements on the future of R&D in Europe, on globalisation and the crucial role that EUREKA and national innovation funding should play in supporting businesses to grow and scale up within Europe and globally.

Overall, €951.2M were invested into new projects with EUROSTARS making up the biggest share of €439.6M. Clusters received the most money per project however, as 43 projects garnered €413.7M. Network projects on average received almost €1M per project. Under the Finnish Chairmanship, the number of endorsed projects grew to an all-time high of 344 and €763.66M invested into them.

Both the endorsed and labelled amounts of participants and more concretely, SMEs, has risen to the highest it has ever been. Both the amount of endorsed network and Eurostars projects has increased slightly under the Finnish Chairmanship.

Canada also renewed its association with the EUREKA Network and the Republic of Korea signed the first ever partnership agreement, elevating the country from associated to partner status.

As the Korea Herald reported the EUREKA general meeting passed the elevation of Korea’s status to a partner country in October of 2017.

“By becoming a partner country, Korea will secure voting rights in key policy decisions within EUREKA. Korea has become a de facto regular member as it doesn’t need to renew its status every three years,” said Kim Hong-joo, chief of the Industry Ministry’s industry technology development division.

The Finnish Chairmanship concluded with the handover to the UK Chairmanship on July 1st.

The information contained in this website is related to the Eurostars Programme (2008-2013) and the Eurostars-2 Programme (2014-2020) which for practical reasons are referred to solely by the name of Eurostars unless stated otherwise.